Expanding on its announcement last month, Smithfield Foods on Tuesday said it would partner with Dominion Energy to turn hog waste into renewable natural gas.
The world largest pork company said in October that waste-treatment pits would be covered at its company-owned and contract farms over the course of the next decade. This would capture the gas and keep out rainwater. The gas would be channeled to processing centers and converted to natural gas.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Smithfield and Dominion say the venture will be in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah. In its October announcement about covering lagoons, Smithfield said that would happen in farms across North Carolina, Utah and Missouri.
Smithfield Foods is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate WH Group. It is currently embroiled in 26 litigation cases involving nuisance lawsuits related to hog farms, of which three are under appeal following juries awarding $549.25 million in damages.
That figure is capped by North Carolina law at $97.88 million.
The fourth of those trials started Nov. 13 and involves Sholar Farms in Sampson County. The first three involved Kinlaw Farms of the White Oak community, the Joey Carter Farm in Beaulaville and Pender County farms involving Elizabethtown-based HD3 Farms of the Carolinas’ subsidiary Greenwood Livestock LLC.
It is unclear if the new procedure is in any way tied to the litigation. Settlement talks between the end of the trial involving Greenwood Livestock in August and the start of the trial involving Sholar Farms were considered significant, but did not reach resolution.
The Environmental Defense Fund is working with Smithfield to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental group said large-scale rollout of the plan could have the effect over 20 years of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from more than 700,000 homes.